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Dec 6 Cafe – Exploding Stars

Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Runaway Universe

with Jeffrey Silverman

Wednesday December 6, 2017 at 7:00 PM

Restaurant Valparaiso, 1403 Solano Ave. Albany

Some of the most energetic and fascinating objects in the Universe are exploding stars known as supernova. These colossal outbursts result from the deaths of stars and for a time can outshine the entire galaxy in which they’re found. Observations of distant supernova provided the first evidence that the expansion of the Universe is speeding up with time, rather than slowing down. This wholly unexpected phenomenon is likely due to a repulsive “dark energy” and has become one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in modern science.

Crab Nebula

Jeffrey Silverman

Jeffrey Silverman is a Data Scientist at Samba TV where he uses Big Data to, among other things, figure exactly how many people are really watching Westworld and Game of Thrones. Before moving into the tech industry, Jeffrey was an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at UT Austin and he earned his PhD at UC Berkeley working on exploding stars and dark energy with Prof. Alex Filippenko. Jeffrey is also heavily involved in various science communication and public outreach programs including the March for Science and Project Astro in San Francisco and (as a co-founder and former co-host) Astronomy on Tap Austin.